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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

We are excited to have the second guest designer of the season today! Thanks for joining us Julie Masse! Julie writes a very successful blog. If you haven't visited Julie's site before, be sure to do so today. If you are joining us from there for the first time, WELCOME to PSA Stamp Camp. We showcase crafty ways to use PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps every weekday.

In addition to writing (and creating) a crafty blog, Julie is a design team member for the Splitcoast Stampers Dirty Dozen. She was the winner of the Moxie Fab's Get Woodsie Challenge. She's on several design teams for The Kitchen Crew, The Cat's Pajamas, and Say It With Letters. She's also an accomplished published card maker, with work appearing in one of our favorites and most difficult to break into: Paper Crafts! See her creative resume, it's very impressive - here.

As you can imagine, I am always excited to see new designers work and what they come up with using our stamps. Julie did not disappoint! Up first, Julie used Smirk Caffeine Confidents for the adorable little characters. She colored them up to bring them to life. She also stamped "Fabulous Friends" from PSA Dare to Dream. This Dare to Dream collection is part of our sentiments that we currently have - check out all of our stamps here.

Here she used the lips and the Eiffel Towel from PSA Frenchie Peel & Stick. She used our grapefruit ink and her PSA Stamper to achieve those crisp and clean impressions on the lips.

Go see her other card that she designed with PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamps on her blog.

GIVEAWAY: To welcome all of Julie's fans and followers, we are giving away 1 Peel & Stick stamp pack & 1 Stamper (including black ink) with a $35 retail value. Just become a follower or subscribe to our newsletter and you will be entered to win. Leave a comment on this post and let us know which you've done. The contest is open for two weeks, and we will announce the winner on our Facebook page! Like us over there for more giveaways, contests and a community of over 5,000 crafters.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Another holiday blew past us! As you take down any decorations you put up, get rid of the wilting flowers, and polish off the last of the chocolates, start thinking about how you will scrap Valentine’s Day 2012. Lucky, you don’t have to think too hard. Kim Schofield has given us a great idea for a layout today.

Kim used 4 layers of different papers and played with geometric shapes. She kept it simple with just one photo – sometimes that’s all you need to capture the event. She stamped several times from Smirk Kiss Me Now Peel & Stick stamps by PSA Essentials. I love the ribbon tape – “happiness is family, happiness is together, happiness is homemade, happiness is sharing.”

Here’s a close up of the Smirk Kiss Me Now stamp kissing characters, “living happily ever after” and “happiness is…being loved” sentiments from that collection. She colored up the characters to make them come alive.

She stamped “Kiss Kiss” also from Smirk Kiss Me now. Look closely, you will also see the lips from PSA Frenchie Peel & Stick. She’s stamped it with a blush pink ink using and her acrylic blocks.

Hope this gives you a little inspiration for scrapping your Valentine’s Day 2012, and hope you had a great “holiday!” with whomever you chose to spend it with.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Remember the days when you checked out a book at the library and they wrote everything on the library card found on the inside jacket? (Remember the days you actually went to the library and checked out a book?)

Monika Wright was inspired by these library cards and felt such twangs of nostalgia, she recreated them. They can be used as bookmarks, gift tags, mini-books & albums, for scrapbooking, and loaner cards when you lend a book from your personal library. My favorite idea for use is a journal for a grade-schooler to keep track of completed books. Monika created a cover with fun patterned paper and a stamp from PSA Essentials Super Star Peel & Stick stamps, and bound them together with a simple 1-hole binder ring.

You can find this adorable and nostalgic idea on her Etsy store – I loveitall. You will get this cute little package that’s stamped with her PSA Essentials personalized stamp on the outer ring, and the inner ring from PSA Bouquet Toss Peel & Stick.

Best of all? This collection of 10 cards is just $1.50… now that’s good ole fashioned pricing… back like the days when they used paper library cards to check books out! Posted to: http://ladybug-blessings.com/?p=2196

Friday, February 24, 2012

No Molly. No friends. No offense! This weekend, I am looking forward to a date night with Mike.

Today’s a perfect day to share Melyssa Connolly’s Date Night Card that just appeared in the Paper Creations Spring 2012 issue! The card has a shabby chic layered look and is just adorable. Send this to your hubby at work, inviting him out for a date. Send it to a girlfriend to ask her out for some quality girl time.

The stamp “Date Night” comes from PSA Date Night Peel & Stick pack. This pack and Mom’s Calendar Peel & Stick packs are super versatile additions to your stamp collection. If you still use a daily organizer (not your iPhone or Blackberry or other device), it’s really fun to get into stamping your events. Stamp “Drinks” with the girls on Wednesday nights, your mom’s birthday, and stamp reminders for picking up your dry cleaning , going to hair appointments or the gym. Mom’s Calendar will help you organize all those kids activities you have going on, too.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Paper Crafts Magazine is one of our favorites in the industry. Their beautiful, uncluttered bi-monthly publication is one that I look forward to in the mail. It's just full of inspiration month after month. If you aren't a subscriber, check out their great deals andseriously consider it - it's one you want to read cover to cover each month. We teamed up their Facebook page to give Paper Crafts fans an opportunity to win!

As you can see, we're gearing up for bridal season! Our custom stamps are great for return address labels. Stamp the back of your envelopes, shower invitations, wedding invitations and create DIY favors, table top and gifts. Change up the middles with all of our love stamps to really customize.

What about stamping your cards? Jamie had a custom stamp made in the Christi design with her blog address and blog name. Now when she creates her cards, she can also stamp the back of them and let people know where they can find more of her work and who did it.

If you are interested in purchasing a stamp like this, head to Cyber-Savvy Shopand right now you can get a custom stamp for just $26.50 (regularly $40.) Purchase a Peel & Stick pack to switch up your middles and get a handy alignment tool for FREE ($10 value.)

Thank-you to all 171 people that commented on the Paper Crafts image & visited our page. The winner is lucky commentor #27.

It made me feel good that Barb won this prize! I am sorry for the loss Barb, but hope that you did have a nice time with your family that you haven't seen in awhile. And isn't it wonderful to be thankful for your health. All the best to you!

I take a lot of photos. I just finished my “2011 O’Regan Yearbook” – an 80 page book I made on Kodak Gallery that’s complete with 1,027 of my “favorite” pictures of 2011. What can you really do with all those pictures? The key is ordering prints of your favorites right away. Order them in a variety of sizes, color finishes (black and white, sepia, full color), and even papers (matte and glossy) and put them in frames and photo holders when you get them in. Mae Armstrong on our PSA Essentials design team came up with a photo holder – you will be sure to order and fill this one up! She’s also chosen to display precious cards and other paper keepsakes in it…. Simply adorable.

Here’s how Mae went about doing this. It does involve a few power tools but Mae’s compiled a great step-by-step tutorial here. First she purchased wooden dowels, wood glue, and a thick 3" 1 1/2" wood base at Lowe’s. When she got started, she measured a 2 ½” allowance on each side of the base before drilling holes for the wooden dowels.

She lined up the wooden dowels and made sure the spacing looked even, about 1 ½” space in between. She used a pencil and marked up the middle of the wooden base before drilling to ensure accuracy and to avoid having to drill again.

The 5/16" bit was a perfect size for the wooden dowels, she was happy to use her new drill! Drilling does make a bit of a mess, for that reason Mae suggests doing the drilling outside the house or maybe inside the garage.

After drilling, she filled in holes with Elmer's Wood Glue Max and used a mallet to secure the dowels all the way down. She set it aside and let it dry for an hour.

While waiting for the wooden stand to dry, Mae dressed up wooden clothespins with a fine crochet yarn. She picked red and pink. She wrapped the bottom half of the pin to dress it up and secured the yarn with glue.

Mae found some extra wooden discs and stamped them using PSA Essentials Peel and Stick Rosettas stamp set. She punched some scalloped tags and mounted the wooden discs on it.To give it more depth she pre-cut some cute doily accents for the outer design.

She then glued the wooden disc onto her scalloped paper and then glued everything on top of the doily accent. She dressed it up with some puff pearl paint and set aside to dry.

As one of the last steps, Mae glued the flower tops onto the clothespins and glued them on the wooden dowels. She waited for a bit and then, this project was complete!

Here’s the finished project on her mantel – looks great, don’t you agree?

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

There’s no avoiding my daughter buying into the fantasy world of princesses and fairies. I knew I was in trouble when I was watching Kate and William get married last Spring. My then not even two year old daughter was glued to the TV. From then on, she sees Kate and says – “Mommy, look – the princess!” In her new “big girl” room hangs mosquito netting from the ceiling, meant to go along with the garden theme of the room. She calls it her princess chair. When choosing her sneakers or jacket in the morning – she always goes for the pink shoes, and the pink jacket – glossing over the green or blue. I just have to accept it and give in. Maybe I will really give in and give her a princess party. I said maybe!

I’ve collected a bunch of ideas on Pinterest and Jennifer Holmes created the perfect invitation for a princess party. Jennifer has stamped the dress, crown and ballet shoes from PSA Cupcake Peel & Stick stamps. I just love how soft and beautiful this invitation is.

Here’s the inside, it opens like a present.

Look how she’s taken the time to color and shade the dress from PSA Cupcake. Beautiful!

Jennifer created a card that corresponds to the invitation. These are all stamps from PSA Cupcake – a great set for a princess party! This set of invitation and card appeared in Paper Creations Spring 2012 issue. Be sure to check it out in print – it looks great the way the issue styled and photographed the projects.

Now here are some of the ideas I’ve begun to collect for inspiration. I’ve credited each source so you can read more about these amazing parties by these fabulous women. This over the top pink candy display comes fromDollar Store Crafts. I love the streamers in the background to pump up the pink!

I am taking the paper pinwheels and especially the ribbon banner as inspiration here from Hostess Blog

I’d like to the balloons on the ceiling from The CelebrationShoppe and the giant balloons on the table here. The little girls party hat isn’t too shabby either.

I am also going to borrow ideas from this Pinkalicious party on How Does She Do It? I just love the banner and the paper rosettes hanging. (Though you will NOT see me doing nails for a 3-year old birthday party!)

It’s fun to start collecting ideas now. Pinterest is full of great ones– are you following me on Pinterest yet? Come and see what it is all about: http://pinterest.com/libby_oregan/. Here’s to planning a great party!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sometimes you can't plan for things. Things happen unexpectedly and seem to fall into your lap. Such was the case of bringing on a new designer to our PSA Essentials team. We had recently brought on Regina Mangum, and we aren't set to choose a new team until August. But Jamie Cripps came along and she was too good to pass up!

When we are looking for designers to join our team, we are looking for people who are motivated by the love of craft. Someone who has a blog and posts regularly for the fun of it - who has an audience and shares their passion for paper crafting, design, sewing, decor and entertainment. We are looking for someone who has real talent. And often times, that talent has been recognized by publications.

Jamie is quite accomplished when it comes to her creative resume. She's been published in:

One of the most important things to consider when bringing on a new member of the team is their personality and if it's someone we'd like to work with for the next year. Jamie is one of the sweetest people I have met! She's responsive to emails, bubbly and enthusiastic about joining the team.

Let's welcome her with open arms! Welcome Jamie Cripps! Now head over to her blog and check out some of her great work. You can see her guest feature on PSA Stamp Camp here. Here's a recent card she posted on her blog that I just loved. Can't wait to see what she comes up with month after month using PSA Essentials stamps.

Monday, February 20, 2012

You should see the stacks of journals I have – I have huge collection of notebooks & journals that I write my to-do lists and notes to myself in. I recently paid about $25 online for a photo journal which is really beautiful but probably was an unnecessary expense. Monika Wright has a solution – make your own! You’ve got to love the crafty, DIY-for-less nature of this project. She’s chosen really springy colors and springy stamps in anticipation for warmer weather and the months ahead. Here’s a great tutorial by Monika.

Gather your supplies: notepad, patterned cardstock, adhesive, and your favorite PSA Essentials Peel & Stick stamp sets. After trimming your cardstock to size, score a line to lay your notepad down on the scoring board, score the line, crease, and then place the notepad down again and score the second line. Crease again.

Monika prefers to use a glue stick to give her time to arrange the cardstock just where she needs it, lining up all the edges, before it is permanently adhered together. Make sure you only glue the back of the notepad, staying clear of the gummed area so that the note paper can easily be removed.

Using stamps from several Peel & Stick stamp sets, embellish the lower right hand corner of each page in the notepad in varying shades that coordinated with the patterned cardstock you chose. You can see here that Monika chose a bumblebee from PSA Topiary, the letter "w" for her last name from PSA Archive, and a flower from PSA Rosettas.

Monika then created a “belly band” to go on the outside of the notebook which was embellished with more flower stamps from PSA Rosettas. She stamped and then punched out using two different punches. Adhere to paper that’s the width of the entire notebook.

Stop by and visit Monika Wright’s blog to see more great projects by her! You've also got to check out her Etsy store- use coupon code ILOVEITALL at checkout, they'll get a 15% discount on total purchase. My favorite stuff of hers right now is the subway artand the mini books.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Welcome! It's our first PSA Stamp Camp Guest Designer for Spring 2012. We had an enormous number of applications, more than any other before, so this was a tough decision. Ultimately we settled on a designer with lots of experience and someone who demonstrated a versatility in styles. Congratulations and welcome Jamie Cripps from Bits of Paper!

Her creative resume is impressive. She's been published in Scrapbook Trends, Michigan Scrapbooker, Cricut Magazine, and is currently on seven (yes, 7!) design teams including Momenta, The Twinery and great others. She updates her blog several times a week - be sure to visit her for lots of inspiration.

I was anxious to see what she designed using PSA Essentials stamps. She didn't disappoint. Here's what she came up with! For the first card, she chose the sentiment "skip the cake, eat the icing" from PSA Dare to Dream. This card is whimsical and beautiful at the same time.

She stamped the back of her card with her PSA Essentials personalized stamp which I had made with her blog address & name.

What's next really made me smile. It's a box that you can fill with presents and goodies to welcome a new baby!

Check out the details here, she used stamps from PSA Little Bunny.

A seasonal card coming up - the colors remind me of St. Patty's Day. She stamped "Make it happen" from PSA Dare to Dream.

We are welcoming all of Jamie's fans and followers of her blog Bits of Paper by hosting a giveaway of 1 custom stamp. Only readers who are not already followers are eligible for this one. Please become a follower via Google Connect or subscribe via "Follow by Email" newsletter to enter. Leave a comment letting us know you've done so! We will close this on 2/24/2012 and announce it 2/25 on PSA Facebook's page.